DALLAS – Newspaper publisher A.H. Belo Corp. (NYSE: AHC), parent of The Providence Journal, is boosting the base pay of two top executives even as it imposes a wage freeze on other workers and suspends profit-sharing payments to their retirement plans, the company said in a regulatory filing.
“On Dec. 3, 2008, the Compensation Committee of A.H. Belo Corp. approved the recommendation of its board of directors to change the 2009 base salaries of its chairman, president and chief executive officer, Robert W. Decherd, and its senior vice president/chief financial officer, Alison K. Engel,” A.H. Belo told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in a form 8K submitted last night.
Decherd – who had agreed to a voluntary pay reduction at the time of the newspaper company’s spinoff from previous parent Belo Corp. (NYSE: BLC) – has been receiving an annual salary of $250,000 plus a performance bonus of as much as seven times his base pay, if the company met all its targets.
Effective Jan. 1, his base pay will rise to $600,000, the company said. But in exchange for the 140-percent raise in pay, he has agreed to waive his anticipated 2008 bonus of $330,000. And going forward, he will accept a “more standard” structure, with a lower bonus cap and revised performance targets.
Meanwhile, the company said, Engel – who also has been receiving a salary of $250,000 – will see her base pay rise 26 percent to $315,000 at the beginning of next year. The new level, the company said, will be more in line with results of a recent salary survey.
In addition, A.H. Belo said in the filing, the Compensation Committee “decided to retain the prerogative to award or not award cash incentives … to plan participants, including the company’s executive officers, [in 2009] even if financial targets are met.” Financial performance targets remain the same for all executives except the CEO, added the company, which has not posted a profit in any quarter since its spinoff. (READ MORE)
The company also announced stock-option grants to several top executives, which will allow them to purchase A.H. Belo Series B common shares at their Dec. 3 closing price. “Options were viewed by the Compensation Committee as the least expensive type of long-term incentive award that could be made,” the panel noted. The recipients, and the amount of stock options granted, were: Decherd, 120,000; Engel, 90,000; James M. Moroney III and Donald F. Cass Jr,– 100,000 apiece; and Daniel J. Blizzard, 50,000.
A.H. Belo executives were making a presentation this morning at the 36th Annual UBS Global Media and Communications Conference in New York City. A webcast of that presentation will be available for replay through Jan. 9 at www.AHBelo.com/invest.
A.H. Belo Corp. (NYSE: AHC) owns and operates The Providence Journal, The Dallas Morning News, The Denton Record-Chronicle and The Press-Enterprise of Riverside, Calif., and as well as a variety of specialty publications for the youth and Hispanic markets; the Web sites associated with its publications; and direct-mail and commercial printing businesses. For more information, visit www.AHBelo.com.
